Lisa Schnebly Heidinger’s affection for Arizona is as deep as her roots.Hearing as a small child that the town of Sedona had been named after her great-grandmother, Sedona Schnebly, Lisa became interested in Arizona pioneers and history – although she ruefully admits that she resisted stopping at historical roadside markers until her 30s.(“It was a bad case of arrested development until I saw the Arizona Territory marker with my father, and was knocked off my metaphorical donkey!”)

She began writing journals as a child, and moved from personal reporting to newspaper as a raw recruit at the Green Valley News in 1979.After four years she broke into broadcast journalism, working seven days a week to do morning drive at KCEE radio while working weekends on KGUN-TV. She then did full time television reporting for five years, covering everything from drug smuggling to polygamists. During the Tucson years, she taught broadcast journalism at the University of Arizona, wrote for Tucson andTucson Lifestyle magazines, and earned a SAG card for a Dennis Weaver movie called “Silo” that went straight to video distribution.In 1989 she moved to Flagstaff to open the Northern Arizona Bureau for KTVK-TV. She met Tom Heidinger doing her first satellite live shot at the Winslow prison; they married the next year and continued to visit one another on weekends until it became clear this was not a lifestyle conducive to raising children. Lisa resigned and moved to the Valley.

Once in Phoenix, Lisa began writing for Arizona Highways, as well as the Sunday editorial page of the Arizona Republic, doing a column called “Arizona Correspondent” for three years.She authored her first book in 1995, and has been doing articles, speeches and books ever since (see "Books" and "Speeches and Seminars" for more on those).She and Tom have two children, Sedona Lee and Rye Schnebly, and dogs Happy Jack and Leupp, prompting Sedona to ask at a young age, “Mama, what is it with you and Arizona towns?”She volunteers at her church, does some substitute teaching, and relaxes by going in the car whenever possible.